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Stop Socialism Memes

Hey everyone,

I know it's been a couple years. I wanted to do a little pre-planning with everyone BEFORE the primary season starts. Our biggest challenge isn't the GOP frontrunner--it's the corrosive mark socialism makes. This is a brainstorming thread.

What I propose is that we bookmark this thread and grow it. Every reply to this thread may be a commonly said remark by a socialist followed by a meme we may all use in reply.

Why am I proposing this? Because our opponents rarely freaking read their own literature, I think we have to meme them.

What I will say that some may not like? "Taxation is theft" is not the best argument to make with them--they worship the State. We need something they can think about. Something that maybe even shocks. Use cited data, their philosopher quotes, ANYTHING to make them pause. There are too many mis-information memes out there like "roads are socialism"....sorry I'm digressing.

"The program of liberalism, ...if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property..."

-Ludwig von Mises

"Patriotism, not nationalism, should inspire the citizen. The ethnic nationalist who wants a linguistically and culturally uniform nation is akin to the racist who is intolerant toward those who look (and behave) differently. The patriot is a "diversitarian"; he is pleased, indeed proud of the variety within the borders of his country; he looks for loyalty from all citizens. And he looks up and down, not left and right."

-Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

"All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

I've laid stones for a different path and a different approach and the door to which those stones have led has been opened so I won't be here when that time comes. At least not regularly anyway.

That said, thoughtful memes are good for people who do facebook and twitter and instagram and whatnot.

Just be careful not to allow the cause to be misrepresented by the reckless and short-sighted. We don't want to burn anyone to death so pictures of federal buildings with people in them and on fire is contrary to it. That's not how we want to end the fed. So if you see anybody doing that, tell em to knock it the heck off because they not only represent their vew, they misrepresent your view in the process by mere (and most often impractical) association. So that's counterintuitive and presupposes your own doom.

Good luck with it.

This is likely too long for a meme, but....

In a Democracy, The Individual, and any group of Individuals composing any Minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of The Majority. It is a case of Majority-over-Man.

'Communism is like Prohibition; it's a good idea but it won't work.'--Will Rogers

The big theme seems to be, it government would work better than it does if only the right people were in charge. We've been failing to put the right people in charge for an awfully long time now; surely there's ample meat for making memes in that simple fact.

'Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.'-- Thomas Jefferson

It has. We just have to cut through the brainwashing that is preventing people from seeing that answer.

Ron Paul had a sign on his desk that said, 'Don't steal--the government hates competition'.

Memes that call for competition with the status quo might be the key. Common core has failed, but the government has made it mandatory, so we can't see if some other educational scheme might work better. Free market health care was kicking Medicare's ass, so the government made it mandatory to charge everyone the inflated charges necessary to cover the incredible costs of Medicare paperwork. The government designs our cars, and it isn't possible to test other safety schemes on American roads. Using money other than the Federal Reserve Note is illegal.

If this government stuff is so damned great, why is it illegal to try something else? Memes that ask this question could make quite a difference.

The truth about NAZI Germany will irritate the Socialists. They love calling others nazis, but they've never looked in the mirror. I wish I could find more NAZI propaganda, but I'd probably have to buy an account with an online historical archivist, or request prints from countries which still respect freedom of speech. So, sorry they're in German, but the imagery and some obvious words are clue enough.

Also, anything connecting Trotsky with Irving Kristol and the Neocons is legitimate. These memes would be for planting doubt, whereas the NAZI ones are for catching them "naked" to embarrass them.

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

Apply to Authoritarianism. or else you get into the whole "my Authoritarian Government is better than your authoritarian government arguments.

Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
Ron Paul 2004

If you guys ever wish to be taken seriously you might actually wish to engage in actual Socialistic policies and not make this very strange (and very American) equivocation of Statism with Socialism, the two are not necessarily interlinked and the most successful Socialist societies have been of the Libertarian variety. Concerning the lame memes on Venezuela & the tedious arguments against Socialism: it all seems like a gigantic case of projection. Whenever there's a crisis in capitalism, a critique concerning market inefficiently (which guys like Chomsky outline very accurately), critique of modern Western society the very first response from Austro-Libertarians is: "but it's not troooo capitalism." Funny enough, whenever a person from the other side merely points out that Socialism is worker control over industry (famous examples would be Revolutionary Spain, Paris Commune) and not a clumsy, third-world, economically undeveloped country we get mocked and you throw the lame, "oh so it's not trooo socialism?' meme at us. My tradition of Socialism stems from 19th & early 20th century thinkers. Completely outside of the traditions of the USSR & Communist China (although it's curious that USSR is the epitome of wickedness when American atrocities are swept under the rug).

Now onto the pics:

The inference is that "Socialism" (whatever that means given the perversion of the term) creates massive wealth inequality- how? Where? Even if you have this weird American belief that Socialism is automatically linked to big gubmint & state intervention into the economy, can you provide examples in first world nations where this has been the result? I'm not aware of a rampant poverty level in Scandinavian nations, Germany, S. Korea, or Japan? Anyhow, is that picture even from Venezuela? That looks like the massive slum in Brazil which is the largest in all of Latin America, dwarfing every single other 'ghetto/slum' in the Spanish-speaking world. What a weird argument. Have you guys been to Latin America? Try traveling the slums of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and get back to me. Ah, but I forgot, "not trooo capitalism."

One could easily change "Communist regime" to "Democratic regime." After all, just about every single 20th century authoritarian State self-identified as "democratic" and "people's republics." Just ask our contemporary benevolent Dictator in the DPRK today. Notice that "D" part of the name? Yeah. The whole "Self-identify" argument has to be one of the lamest and misleading one in these sorts of circles; talk about obfuscating.

Here's BadMouse's video on the matter if you guys are interested further. His explanation is in-depth and goes into the history of Venezuela (which seems to be a power struggle between State powers and oligarchs, hardly an indictment on Socialism or any economic system for that matter)

Now please make a meme thread on the lovely Capitalist paradises in Somalia, the rest of Sub-sahara Africa, most of Latin America, the "PIGS" countries of Europe, and China. Cue the "Not trooo capitalism.. austrian economics!!!11!" ​response in five seconds.